Originally Posted by
gregjones
Perhaps is the problem is the height of the light. With it mounted on your helmet you are not very far off of a straight shot into a pedestrian's eyeballs.
Automotive lighting regulations include both a maximum mounting height and a requirement that the light angle downward, specifically to protect oncoming users from excessive glare.
Here in Washington, the maximum height for a headlight is 54 inches, and by 75 feet ahead of the lamp, the top of the beam has to be below 42 inches.
There are plenty of complaints that those rules aren't strict enough, lots of glare complaints about some models of full-sized pickups with a lot of eye-level glare, but even the worst legal pickup truck is better than many helmet-mounted bike headlights.